Detroit City Council President Pro Tem George Cushingberry Jr. has a court date of March 24 on a traffic ticket reissued by Detroit police. / Kimberly P. Mitchell/Detroit Free Press

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Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

Detroit police said today that the department reissued a ticket against City Councilman George Cushingberry Jr. related to a now-infamous January traffic stop.

Police say Cushingberry and a friend were in the council president pro tem’s 1993 Buick the evening of Jan. 7 when officers stopped him after he pulled out of the Penthouse Lounge on the city’s west side. Police said Cushingberry twice tried to elude officers, a claim the councilman said was bogus, given snowy roads that night.

Police said there was an odor of marijuana and they saw joints in the possession of Cushingberry’s passenger, who has a medical marijuana card. In addition, the officers said there was an empty bottle of rum in the backseat. Cushingberry was not arrested or tested for sobriety, and instead was issued a ticket only for failing to signal. He has said the bottle had been in the car for at least a week and that he had one drink at the lounge and was not intoxicated.

The initial ticket, police said, was inadvertently sent to a location where the officer who issued it had worked before being transferred. The officer never received notice to appear in court on the ticket, which was dismissed because the officer never showed.

The department said earlier this month it would reissue the ticket, an action that a Cushingberry lawyer said was unusual for police to do with a civil infraction.

“It’s not uncommon for us to reissue tickets,” 3rd Deputy Chief Rodney Johnson said today. “I can’t speak for his experience.”

Cushingberry couldn’t immediately be reached for comment today. His lawyer, Rohn Mitchell, repeated complaints that the police were taking an extraordinary step in reissuing a minor traffic ticket.

“They’re just trying to make an example out of him,” Mitchell said. “I was a policeman for 26 years in Detroit and can’t remember them ever doing something like that for a civil infraction.”

A court date was set for 8:30 a.m. March 24 at Detroit’s 36th District Court.

“We’re definitely going to fight it, and we’ll be in court to see what the officer says,” Mitchell said.